Does Windows Installer install the application update method?
Does Windows Installer provide a built-in method to update apps, or do I have to write this myself in my app code?
For example, ClickOnce can automatically update my application for me; I don't need to write code specifically for this in my application. Is similar functionality available in Windows Installer, or is it purely for installation?
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Windows Installer provides a mechanism for creating patches and updates for the applications you used to install it, either for minor bug fixes or for a full version upgrade from version. (Some information can be found here .)
However, it does not provide an automatic update mechanism such as ClickOnce. You will need to write code that knows how to look for available updates and start the update process.
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Windows Installer does provide a mechanism for updating applications. Check out the overview from Microsoft. Here are the specific types:
Major update :
For major new releases that include bulk changes to the app's feature tree and possibly removing deprecated features or components (1.0 → 2.0)
Minor Update :
For minor changes to the application such as updating existing files and possibly adding new ones (1.0 → 1.1)
Minor update (fix) :
For very minor changes, usually no change in the published version number.
Tools like Wix help create an MSI database that tells the installer service how to handle the update.
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While it is true that MSI has various maintenance strategies, the auto-update pattern is not one of them. If you are using InstallShield you can use your own automatic update framework. If you don't mind writing some code, here's one way to do it yourself:
http://blog.deploymentengineering.com/2006/10/implementing-auto-updating.html
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